The 72nd Hunger Games
by PhoebsiePhoenix
Summary: It' the 72nd Hunger Games and Fawn Greenlaw, a 12 year old girl from district 10, is one of the tributes. In an arena full of people twice her size does she have a hope of winning? Nobody believes she does but will Fawn prove all of them wrong?
1. Chapter 1

The 72nd Hunger games

Chapter 1-The Reaping

My name is Fawn Greenlaw, twin sister to Hadrian Greenlaw and today is the day of our first reaping. As the children of district 10 lined up to be reaped I felt a jolt of panic for my brother, I had my name in once and he had his name in several times so we would get some tesserae. I had begged him to let me have my name in more than once as well so he could have his name in less but he didn't listen, protecting me, as always. He always did his best to keep me out of danger, be it a rampaging bull or our father in one of his rages, he had took the blame for things I had done wrong-like not closing the cattle gate properly-and ended up with bruises and slap-marks because of it but he felt as long as he could keep me safe it was worth it.

When all the children were in the square they started a short movie about the dark ages and how all the districts were punished for their rebellion and how that punishment was still being carried out today to remind us all of what we inflict upon ourselves by disobeying the Capitol. _What a load of rubbish _I thought to myself, it made no sense why we should suffer for things or great-grandparents did nearly three-quarters of a century ago? After the movie had finished Garrick Elestren (the guy from the Capitol who picks the tributes) stepped onto the stage.

"Welcome to the district 10 reaping for the 72nd Hunger Games!" He announced to the cameras in his silly Capitol accent, it was often made fun of by us in district 10-I'm sure they did the same in the other districts-and under other circumstances would've made me laugh but now I found no humour in it. This was the man who could condemn a child to death by choosing a card at random in the bowl of names in front of him. "Ladies first!" He declared, walking towards the girls bowl and fishing around inside, I hoped it wasn't any of my friends; I couldn't bear it if one of them died. Garrick finished fishing and walked to the centre of the stage where the microphone was, my heart was hammering and I was struggling to breathe, _don't be so stupid it's not going to be you, you're only in once!_ My common sense told me but I didn't listen, I wasn't only nervous for myself it was my best friend too. Garrick got to the microphone and read out the name, "Fawn Greenlaw!" He cried and looked down at the children. The girls around me drew away as if I had some sort of disease they didn't want to catch, clearing a path to the stage; they knew that I was basically already dead. I saw my best friend with tears in her eyes and smiled, it was a kind smile, we had spent the last time we had together before the reaping arguing over something unimportant and I wanted to make sure she knew I had gotten over it.

I reached the stage and stood facing all the people in my district. I had the sudden urge to throw up and quelled it, I shot a look at my new mentor, Alto Whistheart, and he looked calm and collected as always. Alto never showed much emotion in public but I had heard him when he accidentally hit with a cattle prod and he was a very loud and passionate curser. I looked back to the crowd just in time to hear the name of the boy,_ please not Hadrian please not Hadrian please not Hadrian, _repeated itself in my mind. "The boy tribute is Bise Wellwood!" A tall, muscly boy strode confidently to the stage, I knew him quite a bit; he had stood up for Hadrian a lot and our parents had been very close childhood friends so we had been close to growing up together. Hadrian looked happy with the choice and I knew in district 10 Bise would protect me but I was doubtful he would keep me alive with his own life on the line, and anyway no twelve-year-old would be a match for sixteen-year-old Bise who could wrestle a full grown bull to the ground in less than 20 seconds. "Ladies and gentlemen, the district 10 tributes for the 72nd Hunger Games!" Garrick announced, boys clapped and whistled for Bise and some of the older girls did too but those who knew me well gave me a sign for good luck, I was stronger than most girls, could beat anyone I knew except people like Bise (muscle monsters) in a running race but I will need all the luck I can get in these games.

We were taken inside the justice building and into separate rooms so our friends and family could say goodbye. First came my mother, father and Hadrian, they all hugged me tight and told me I had to try my best to win, Hadrian especially. He told me he still wanted a sister at the end of the games, and at one point he told me,

"Fawn you see how the tributes go during the games, some of them are worse than animals. If you can put down an animal you can put down a tribute." I didn't want to believe him but I knew it was true; it would be all too easy to see the tributes as animals instead of humans. After watching the Hunger games every year of my life I knew that sometime in the games, be it caused by the need for revenge or something else, I would feel blood lust. When their three minutes were up Hadrian put something in my hand, I looked at it and nearly cried, it was a simple leather bracelet but if you looked closely you could see the words _**best sister**_ engraved into the leather, Hadrian had a matching one with _**best brother**_, they had been our birthday presents to each other on our 12th birthday. As he was leaving he whispered in my ear, "Don't lose it." I knew I wouldn't, it meant too much to me for that. I would be honoured to take it into the arena as my token, of course I might not be able to, the Capitol would check it thoroughly for any concealed weapons that might give me an edge in the games but they wouldn't find any.

My best friend, Vanessa Meadow-Skye, rushed in after they left,

"I'm sorry." She sobbed,

"There's nothing to be sorry for." I consoled her, "I'm going to do my best to come back." I promised, and though she attempted to smile, I could see the sadness in her eyes and I knew she didn't believe that I could make it out of the arena alive. She hugged me and we talked but all too soon her time was up and she was crying again. "I'll be okay." I reassured her but even I didn't believe me.

I had time for one last visitor and he came, I got on better with boys than girls but none of the boys liked to include me in their competitions because they learned early on I could beat them at just about anything, so I stayed with Vanessa much more and all her friends were girls but I couldn't stand half of them. Darren River-Dell came, the one boy who was not ashamed to be friends with a girl.

"Fawn you can win if you don't lose hope." He told me," If you can be bull riding under 15 champion since you were 10 you can win this, and you need to get back to defend your title." He added with a smile, I smiled back and he caught me in a bone-crushing hug," Just don't die okay?"

" I promise I'll do my best not to die, and if I do I promise to come back and annoy you forever." I replied, making him crack a genuine smile, then his time was up and I had to board the train to my doom.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The train and strategies

It would take half a day to reach the Capitol in this train; it went 200 miles an hour normally so we wouldn't have much time to enjoy the scenery as it rushed by. We got settled and the train started moving, Alto Whistheart came into the room and sat at the table, he indicated for me and Bise to join him and immediately plunged into a range of tactics for both of us. There was more he could do for Bise, who was stronger and able to do more as he had worked with the more dangerous animals back in district 10 so he had worked with Alto sometimes. But when Alto got to me he didn't have as much to go off so Bise volunteered information, like how I was the fastest runner he knew, I was stronger than most other girls, I could do this, I was the best at that. I had no idea Bise knew so much about me and was slightly flattered that someone who I had never expected to pay attention to me knew of things I had done in such great detail. By the end Alto knew a lot about me that he could use so he started talking,

"You're a good looking pair so that will help you get sponsors." He started, Bise was certainly handsome with his bold features and bronze colouring but I doubted frizzy black hair, skin so pale it looked like I never saw the sun despite working for hours outside every day and a misshapen nose where I had broken it falling off a high fence was pretty, the only thing I thought was pretty about me was my eyes, they were clear, shiny and a beautiful silvery blue. "You both seem to be able to fend for yourselves and are almost the perfect model of fitness." In district 10 we got more food than the other districts as if the meat was spoiled and deemed unsuitable for the Capitol it was given to the citizens so most people in district 10 were fit but those like me and Bise that worked in the fields since we were babies and hardly ever missed a day were the fittest. Alto started drawing up a strategy, "Bise, you are strong but all your muscle will slow you down, if Fawn can run in and out of the cornucopia and grab some stuff you could have her back and you have more chance of surviving the beginning of the bloodbath and get out of there before the careers are finished with the other tributes. This is a strategy for if you are going to be an alliance but you can sort that out later"

"What do we do after that?" I asked,

"Well if you manage to get far enough away you should check what you've got, you want to know what you're carrying so you don't look in your bags and find only empty flasks if you're starving. You should split what you have between the two of you so if you're separated you can survive. Only take what you can carry while running for long distances or you might find the amount you have to be your downfall." He continued, " Don't make yourself a target before the games have begun by showing the things you can do well in training, work on the things you need to improve, they could save your life in the arena."

"We'll keep that in mind." Bise promised. It was soon time for lunch and Bise and I ate so much of the rich food we were almost sick but we choked it down because we would need the extra nutrition when it came to the arena. For the rest of the train ride we worked on tactics and discussed possibilities of the different arenas we could be put in. Alto bombarded us with different situations and expected us to tell him what we would do; whenever we decided on a move that would get one or both of us killed he corrected us sharply to make sure we remembered. Then, as the sky began to darken, we arrived in the Capitol.

"One last thing," Alto began before we left the train, "don't object to whatever the stylists do, no matter how much it diminishes your pride, you'll have to deal with worse in the arena." Then we were ushered into a large building with plain white walls everywhere, I had no idea something in the Capitol could be so plain. Three weirdly coloured people pulled me into one of the rooms; I had just enough time to shoot a look of horror at Bise, who smirked, before the doors were closed.

**Sorry if that chapter was a little short, it seemed longer when I was writing it. Oh and any type of review is a good review (except for mean ones )**


	3. Chapter 3

**Finally! I can upload! I lost my laptop for a while. I am constantly thinking the days are passing faster or slower than they are when I think about writing this so when I lost my laptop I was really stressed. It turns out it was in my brother's bedroom. I have no clue why. Plus I am sorry if the chapters are a little short.**

**Disclaimer for this chapter and the other two because I think I have to do it: I do not own the Hunger games, only the few characters I have created**

Chapter 3-The horrific power of the Capitol stylists

The three women introduced themselves while putting my clothes in a bin. Their names were Lucia, Violetta and Jessamine. They thought my clothes were horrible and mucky but the long-sleeved shirt and knee length skirt were my best clothes. All three exclaimed in horror when they saw the scars I had gotten from working with animals over the years. "What happened?" Violetta asked, "Falling off a fence, falling into a fence of barbed wire, knives in the butcher's shop, bitten by a dog and there are others." I said as I pointed to the different scars. "It must be horrible looking like that all the time!" Jessamine exclaimed. Had none of them ever hurt themselves at all? Of course not they were from the Capitol, where perfection was strived for, if they'd ever had any scars they would've removed them in any way possible. "Everyone has scars in district 10." I told them, "Our way of life makes it impossible not to have scars." These people were wearing down my patience with their high-pitched tones and I'd only known them 5 minutes. Finally they shut up, starting to work on my body, I was uneasy at first but I closed my eyes and ignored the three women. I was sat on a table and the torture began.

They completely ridded my body of hair, waxing most of my body until I was sure I was pink all over. They spared most of my eyebrows and my head but the stinging brought tears to my eyes which I quickly blinked away, _don't be a baby Fawn. _I told myself and managed to get through the rest without any tears. They straightened my hair, making it look smooth and silky, and then did my nails, cutting and cleaning them so they weren't all dirty and chewed. After a brief inspection they decided they were happy with my appearance and showed me my reflection in a mirror. My mouth literally dropped open, I looked like a completely different person, I could still see me behind it all but I looked more sophisticated, less like the savage the three ladies probably thought I was when I first came in. I was given a paper robe that I pulled on despite knowing my stylist would make me take it off as soon as they came in. Lucia Violetta and Jessamine went to get the stylist while I stood alone in the room, I bet Bise didn't have to go through this torture, boys were allowed to be hairy but girls had to be as bald as babies on their bodies to reach Capitol standards.

Just then the door opened and my stylist walked through the door, he had unnatural yellow eyes and a flat cat nose with whiskers, his skin was yellowy like he had an illness but I thought he reminded me of an animal we saw in history books sometimes, the lion. He waved his hands at me and told me to take my robe off, I did so with a sigh and he looked at me from his position by the door, "I'm sorry but you have to do this I'll be quick so you can put it back on soon." His voice was a deep growl empty of any emotion other than boredom, not the voice I had been expecting for a man who appeared to be in his twenties, you never know with people from the Capitol. He circled me a couple of times then told me I could put my robe back on; I did so quickly and gratefully. He crossed the room and opened a door I hadn't realised was there into a sitting room with two green sofas and a mahogany coffee table in the centre of a black rug. He didn't wait for me to sit down before he started talking about the opening ceremony and what I was going to wear. He claimed he wanted to do something different to cows but there wasn't much you could do with district ten other than livestock. He showed me his idea on the drawing board then the actual outfit; it was crimson leather trousers and jacket with matching shoes. I didn't get it until he explained it to me; he was dressing me up as a piece of meat! That was the best he could come up with! Great, I would be humiliated as much as possible before they sent me to my death in the arena.

In a couple of hours I was stood by the District 10 chariot in my meat suit with my hair tied into a ponytail, next to Bise in his matching attire. When I saw him a nearly laughed, not that I didn't look silly myself but seeing it on someone else just cracked me up. The other tributes pointed and sniggered at us but I felt sorry for the district 12 tributes, they were naked with miner's helmets on and covered with black dust, it had to be horrible. Just then the message was passed around for the tributes to get in the carriages and the procession began. District 1 went first, then 2, then 3 and soon it was time for our chariot to go, it moved and Bise and I adopted forms that conveyed just how irritated we were. I scowled and glared at the audience, sticking out my hip making my balance precarious as they cheered for the other tributes; Bise had his arms crossed and his hands clenched into fists. Seeming to try and burn the audience with his eyes, if anyone bothered to look at us they would see slabs of meat (the way they usually saw tributes unless they were the victor) which hated them completely, they would probably just write that off as our act, an attempt to look tough by District 10. We are lucky in some respects in District 10 as we learn to ride horses from a young age and have makeshift chariot in the summer sometimes so no matter how precarious my balance was I didn't need to hold on to anything to assure myself I wasn't going to fall, the same went for Bise. The audience were screaming for different tributes and though I thought I heard Bise's name called I never head mine, nobody bothered with the 12 year olds, we rarely mad it past the first few days. The horses trotted forward for a while longer and then stopped in front of President Snow's mansion. Snow started giving the official welcome and my mind wandered, thinking on the days ahead. I was jolted back into the present time when the anthem blasted out and the chariot started moving again, straight into the training centre where we will be imprisoned until the games begin.


End file.
